i could be on medicare, but i chose not to do it. i've been with the va since i got out of the service in 1971. but why are all of these tests being run? and i know it costs money. host: thank you. in fact, testing has been a regular theme of your story here is 1 "new yorker" article with the headline, "testing, testing." guest: your caller hit the button on one of the issues driving the process, the malpractice system, which is driven in ways -- let me give you an example -- headaches. one community tried to look at how many ct scans and cedar rapids, iowa, they were doing for people. they did 50,000 cds dance for a population of 300,000 people a year. all of us know this is not necessary. 10,000 of them were for had ct scans, and only a tiny number of some of it was fear of malpractice suits. more significant part of it is that we have not really established what our process is, our appropriate guideline for care for handling the headaches so we can do it the right way, so we have tens of thousands of unnecessary ct scans causing m